Battle of Caserma di Alviano

The Battle of Caserma di Alviano (1500) was a battle of the Italian War of 1499-1504 that occured when a force of Papal soldiers commanded by Captain Battista Borgia (third cousin to Cesare Borgia) attempted to capture the barracks of the mercenary leader Bartolomeo d'Alviano, an enemy of the House of Borgia. The mercenaries not only repelled the attack, but they also assassinated Borgia and destroyed his guard tower, liberating a portion of the city from Borgia rule.

Background
Starting in 1499, the Captain-General of the Papal States, Cesare Borgia, began a series of campaigns in the Romagna region, fighting against the House of Sforza, the House of Orsini, and several other enemies of the Papacy. His father, Pope Alexander VI, had Rome fortified with new "Borgia towers", large guard towers that served as centers of the occupation of all of Rome's districts. In 1500, the Borgia family's most powerful enemy, Ezio Auditore da Firenze, arrived in Rome after being chased out of Monteriggioni by Cesare Borgia's Papal-French army, and he began to organize a resistance movement against the Borgia family. He allied with Bartolomeo d'Alviano, a condottiero from the Orsini family who fought against the French armies to the north and the Papal armies to the south. D'Alviano's men held their own, but the fight did not go well, as the mercenaries found themselves being attacked from two sides. D'Alviano's wife, Pantasilea Baglioni, told Auditore that, if he was able to defeat the weakened Borgia forces, the mercenaries could focus on the fighting on the French front.

Battle
The same afternoon as Auditore's reunion with the D'Alvianos, the Borgia captain Battista Borgia and several Papal troops assaulted the Caserma di Alviano, the mercenary camp in Rome. D'Alviano's mercenaries fought against the Borgia troops, while Auditore pursued a fleeing Borgia. Auditore succeeded in assassinating Borgia before he could make it to his tower, and the mercenaries soon caught up with him. They skirmished with French troops while passing by the Castra Praetoria, where Baron Octavian de Valois made the French army's camp, and the French soldiers were slain. Auditore proceeded to cross a bridge and reach the Borgia tower, which he climbed and proceeded to blow up by igniting the gunpowder on its roof. The district was liberated from Borgia control, and Auditore returned to D'Alviano to tell him of his success. He proceeded to renovate the mercenary barracks, and he recruited D'Alviano into his plan to overthrow the Borgia in Rome itself.